Monsters (Diablo II)

Monsters are the name used collectively for all enemies in Diablo II. Monsters come in many varieties, and range from small and obnoxious to large and extremely powerful. There are many different aspects that separate different monsters from one another, such as type (demon, undead, or animal), form, size, color, and stats such as attack type, strength, resistances, AI (artificial intelligence), and even their type of movement.

Contents

Monsters appear randomly in the wilderness at various places, and are typically found in groups. A player can learn a great deal of things about a monster by hovering the mouse pointer over a monster and looking at the name.

There are three basic versions that nearly all monsters in the game can spawn as. These are Normal, Champion, and Unique/Super Unique.

Normal: This is the base version of all monsters. Most monsters will spawn in their normal version. Their names appear in white.

Champion: A monster can spawn as a champion at random. A Champion monster almost always spawns in a group of 4-5 other champions. Champion monsters come in a few different varieties: Champion, Berserker, Fanatic, Ghostly, and Possessed. Each different type receives different boosts to their stats, but all receive a large bonus to their life. Champions' names appear in blue.

Unique: Unique monsters spawn with random modifiers added to them, such as Stone Skin, Spectral Hit, or Lightning Enchanted, to name a few, which add to their offensive or defensive prowess. Only one Unique can spawn in any group of monsters, but will always have several Minions. Unique Monsters have custom names that differ from their regular monster names, and their names appear in gold. Uniques spawn randomly each game and at random locations.

Super Unique: Super Unique monsters are just like Unique monsters: they often spawn with several Minions and their names appear in gold. However, unlike Unique monsters, who appear at random, Super Unique monsters always spawn in the same place, and always appear in every game. Examples include Blood Raven and Radament. Bosses are considered to be Super Uniques.

While bosses are technically Super Unique monsters, there are several things that separate the two. There are five bosses in Diablo II: Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo and Baal. Sometimes other Super Uniques, like the Ancients, are also referred to as bosses. To clearly distinguish the aforementioned bosses from other monsters, they are most commonly referred to as Act Bosses. Act Bosses all have a quest related to them, which will always be the last quest in each Act. This quest must be completed in order for the player to advance to the next Act. Bosses have a better drop chance when killed for quest completion than if they are killed after their related quest has been finished.

Apart from spawning as different versions, monsters also appear in different "breeds". The higher level versions are stronger and more powerful, and appear in different colors. This is a way for the same monster to appear in the game again at later stages; the increased strength is to compensate for the levels the player has gotten since their previous encounter.

An example would be the Fallen and the Carver. Both are a Fallen-type monster, but the Carver has blue skin compared to the Fallen's red skin, higher stats, and appears later in the game.

Most of the time these monster varieties simply have increased stats, different colors, and different Immune Monsters, but sometimes higher level monsters get entirely new abilities. An example is the Doom Knight and Oblivion Knight. Both belong to the same family, but while the Doom Knight is a melee fighter, the Oblivion knight is a spellcaster with no melee attack at all.

In Diablo II, there are three monster types: Undead, Demon, and Animal (in game, Animals don't have any type displayed).

First and foremost, these types are the subject of a variety of game modifiers. For example, certain skills in the game, such as Sanctuary, only affect Undead. There are also certain item affixes that provide increased damage against Demons and/or Undead, and some Unique Items provide the player with extra life after each Demon kill. No modifiers affect Animal monsters differently.

Secondly, these types also categorize the monsters in lore. Demons are from The Burning Hells and serve the three Prime Evils, the Undead are revived spirits, and Animals are creatures indigenous to Sanctuary. Many monsters that would appear to be demons, such as Gargantuan Beasts and Sabre Cats are inhabitants of Sanctuary, and not demons from other planes.

All monsters can drop items for the players to pick up, and, depending on what monster is killed, different items might drop. Uniques and Super Uniques will always drop either an item of at least magical quality or a gem or rune. Bosses have an even higher chance of dropping items, and the higher the level of the monster, the better the items are that can drop (that does not mean, however, that drops are always better, only that the chance gets better). Low-level monsters cannot drop items that are too high level for them, but high-level monsters can drop low-level items, although the chance decreases as the player progresses in the game.

There are two ways to affect drops. The first is to increase the number of players in a game; this will cause more items to drop from monsters, thus netting a higher chance of getting a good item like a Unique. The second is to equip items with Chance to find Magic Items, which will increase the chance of quality drops. Note that the latter will only affect items that can spawn as magical or better.

Uber monsters are poweful bosses that have been added to the game since release to provide an increased challenge to players after they beat Hell Baal. The first Uber to appear in the game was Uber Diablo, he was added in Patch 1.10 both to give players a challenge but also to reduce Stone of Jordan duping.

In Patch 1.11, many new Ubers were added, all related to the Pandemonium Event. To this date, completing that event is the toughest challenge in Diablo II, and only a few builds are capable of completing it on their own.

Gamepedia

Tools

Content is available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.Diablo content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Blizzard or its licensors. All rights reserved. This site is a part of Curse, Inc. and is not affiliated with Blizzard.